The multifold benefits of physical exercise are well established. However, most users are pressed for time and seek to maximize the benefit of such time as they have. Hence, the popularity of a workout regimen that utilizes multiple exercise machines or stations, each of which might provide an exercise that focuses on a particular muscle or muscle group, or that provides cardio (versus strength) training. Further, modern exercise equipment is typically capable of adjustment to accommodate different fitness levels, i.e., a difficulty setting is usually provided that can increase or decrease the amount of exertion that it takes to operate the machine, thereby making it possible for a single machine to accommodate users over a wide range of ability levels.
Coaches, personal trainers, etc., often desire that the clients who are under their care and advisement follow a predetermined sequence of exercises. This might be for many reasons, but among these reasons are a desire to help a client improve in a particular area, to assist a client in reaching a particular fitness goal, or just to prescribe a general fitness protocol or program. Additionally, in most health-clubs and fitness centers, this set of exercises will typically involve multiple exercise machines and varied difficulty level settings on each machine.
However, and as might be expected, it can be difficult for a busy user to keep track of the coach's recommended workout program and to track his or her own performance while following that plan. The prescribed plan could involve four or more different exercise machines, each of which might be operated at a different difficulty level for a different period of time. It would be predictably difficult to commit a complex exercise program to memory and the conventional alternative, e.g., carrying around a printed (or e-mailed) summary of the workout schedule, has obvious disadvantages. Further, many exercise machines provide the user with real-time and/or summary performance statistics (e.g., steps per minute, calories burned, watts generated, etc.) and the user and/or coach may wish to review these statistics in order to gauge the user's progress on the plan. Of course, the user is not likely to be able to remember the performance statistics on even one exercise machine after a few minutes, much less remember the statistics from four or more. Thus, information that might be important to the user's training is typically lost.
Another problem that arises with complex workouts—or even simple workout plans for that matter—is that when the user initially reaches the next machine in the series it likely will have different parameter settings (e.g., exercise duration, difficulty level, etc.) than have been specified for that particular user. This is a well-known inconvenience that is common where exercise machines are utilized by multiple users.
Accordingly, it should now be recognized, as was recognized by the present inventors, that there exists, and has existed for some time, a very real need for a device that would address and solve the above-described problems.
However, before proceeding to a description of the present invention, however, it should be noted and remembered that the description of the invention which follows, together with the accompanying drawings, should not be construed as limiting the invention to the examples (or preferred embodiments) shown and described. This is so because those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains will be able to devise other forms of this invention within the ambit of the appended claims.